- The EU commission on Tuesday
(24 October) proposed that a group of 11 countries move ahead with a
common financial transactions tax, after years of wrangling failed to
produce a deal among all member states.Estonia late on Tuesday joined an earlier group of 10 - Austria,
Belgium, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia
and Spain - willing to go ahead with the tax.The proposal still needs the approval of a majority of the EU's 27
countries and the European Parliament, after which a joint legal text
will be issued.EU tax commissioner Algirdas Semeta said this will be "the epitome of
a fair tax," raising "billions" of euros while helping to curb the
"casino-type trading" that caused the 2008 financial crisis.
The roots of the idea go as far back as 1972 when Nobel laureate James Tobin proposed a tax on currency speculations.Some countries have in the meantime introduced one form or another of
taxation on financial services, but the idea for an EU-wide tax failed
to gather the support of Britain, Sweden, Malta, Ireland and Luxembourg
as well as other states which are wary that in the absence of a
worldwide tax, financial businesses will move elsewhere.Semeta said that even if it is applied among just 11 countries the
tax will "replace a patchwork of different national approaches" making
it easier for operators throughout the EU.
What will be done with the revenues is so far unclear.One idea is to have it help finance a eurozone-only budget (all 11
countries are euro members) which should cushion the impact of austerity
measures in places like Spain and Greece.Development NGOs say the money should go to poorer regions in the
world, allowing member states to deliver on humanitarian commitments."This tax can raise billions of euros of much-needed revenue for
member states in these difficult times," commission chief Jose Manuel
Barroso said, without specifying how it should be used.The details on the level of the tax are not clear either.
An EU-wide proposal that was binned earlier this year suggested a 0.1
percent tax on regular trades and 0.01 percent on derivatives,
including the automated speculative trading that goes on in milliseconds
upon slight variations in the markets.Back then, the EU-wide tax was estimated to bring in €57 billion a year.
BRUSSELS - EU leaders are stalling
"irresponsibly" and even rolling back some decisions on banking union
and further integration of the eurozone, MEPs said on Tuesday (23
October) in a debate on the outcome of last week's summit.The two-day summit, which saw 10 hours of debates and disagreements
among EU leaders on Thursday night, was defended by EU council chief
Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso
as an "intermediate" one, aimed at "reconfirming" earlier decisions and
paving the way for more "substantial" decisions in the coming months.Van Rompuy acknowledged that the EU may have "underestimated the breadth and depth of the crisis in some member states."But he insisted that changes were coming, even if in small steps.
Transforming the eurozone into a closer political and economic union -
as markets expect - will need some "excruciating work," he said.
"What we're getting at now is the crux, the hard core of sovereignty
and solidarity. There are number of taboos that have to be touched."Leading members of the European Parliament were not impressed.
"We have seen some happy faces again after this summit. But this is
not enough for us. Instead of discussing a 'super-commissioner for
finance' as German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been doing, we must take
robust action," said Socialist leader, Austrian deputy Hannes Swoboda.Spain and Ireland "need our help and support now, not in 2015 or in
the distant future," he added in a reference to the June agreement that
the eurozone bailout fund (ESM) will be used to prop up banks in these
two countries.After last week's summit it became clear that this scheme will need
another series of decisions which will require the approval of the
German Bundestag.Liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt accused EU leaders of dragging their
feet because next September's elections in Germany. "This is
irresponsible in the middle of the crisis," he said.The Liberal leader also dismissed proposed "contracts" between member
states and the EU commission which would make reform pledges more
binding."Europe is a political Union, based on common policies, based on binding legislation, not contracts," he said.The idea, backed by Germany and penned down in a report drafted by
Van Rompuy on how to bring about more economic and political integration
in the eurozone, will be "further explored" at another summit in
December.Not all countries were happy with the development.
According to sources, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte on Thursday
night took a long time to agree to the loose wording. He had originally
demanded that the option only be considered for countries that have
overstepped the EU's deficit and debt rules. Rutte also questioned who
would double-check such agreements.The other sticking point that night was on the eurozone budget.Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite insisted that plans for a
eurozone budget should be clearly separated from the upcoming EU budget
for 2014-2020 as such, not just the negotiations on it currently under
way. This reflects a lingering fear from new member states that rich
countries in the eurozone will have a pretext for putting less money in
the common pot.Her main opponent on the matter was Britain's David Cameron, who
wants to make sure that his country pays as little as possible to the
joint EU budget. Other eastern countries also quietly supported her, but
given the late hour and the early stage of the eurozone budget idea,
they chose not to put up a fight. In the end, the text stayed as
initially drafted, separating between the eurozone budget and EU budget
"negotiations."Cameron also raised questions on the proposed eurozone banking
supervisor with respect to British voting rights within the European
Banking Authority - a London-based umbrella organisation of national
supervisors.For her part, British centre-left opposition MEP Sharon Bowles, who
chairs the economics committee, on Tuesday in Strasbourg also questioned
the rationale for the "legislative rush" on the banking supervisor when
clearly a few more months could bring more quality to the bill.
"We are heading towards a banking union-lite," she said."Is it just about pushing for good news before the public and the parliament can realise what it's about?" she asked.
MUSLIM NATIONS
EZEKIEL 12:25
25 For I am the LORD: I will speak, and the word that I shall speak shall come to pass; it shall be no more prolonged: will I say the word, and will perform it, saith the Lord GOD.
EZEKIEL 5:17
17 So will I send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave thee; and pestilence and blood shall pass through thee; and I will bring the sword upon thee. I the LORD have spoken it.
EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:TOBOLSK)
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
EZEKIEL 39:1-8,11-18
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back,(RUSSIA-ARAB MUSLIM ISRAEL HATERS) and leave but the sixth part of thee,(5/6TH OR 300 MILLION DEAD I BELIEVE) and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.
11 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog (RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS) a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers (EAST OF THE DEAD SEA IN JORDAN VALLEY) on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog (RUSSIAN) and all his multitude:(ARAB/MUSLIM HORDE) and they shall call it The valley of Hamongog.(BURIEL SITE OF THE 300 MILLION,RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS)
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.(OF ISRAEL)
13 Yea, all the people of the land (OF ISRAEL) shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown the day that I (GOD-JESUS) shall be glorified, saith the Lord GOD.
14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment,(NUCLEAR BOMB EXPERTS) passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.
15 And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it,(WON'T TOUCH IT) till the buriers have buried it (PROPERLY) in the valley of Hamongog.(RUSSIA/ARAB/MUSLIMS NEW BURIEL SITE)
16 And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.(OF THE ISRAEL-GOD HATERS)
17 And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; Speak unto every feathered fowl,(500 MILLION MIGRATING BIRDS THREW ISRAEL EVERY SPRING,FALL) and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh, and drink blood.(OF THE RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIM ARMIES)
18 Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19 And ye (MIGRATING BIRDS IN ISRAEL) shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you.(RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIM ISRAEL HATERS)
20 Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord GOD.
21 And I (GOD-JESUS) will set my glory among the heathen,(WORLD NATIONS) and all the heathen (WORLD NATIONS) shall see my judgment that I have executed,(AGAINST ISRAELS ENEMIES) and my (GODS) hand that I have laid upon them.(ISRAELS HATER ENEMIES)
JEREMEIAH 49:35-37 (IN IRAN AT THE BUSHEHR NUKE SITE SOME BELIEVE)
35 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam,(IRAN/BUSHEHR NUCLEAR SITE) the chief of their might.(MOST DANGEROUS NUKE SITE IN IRAN)
36 And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven,(IRANIANS SCATTERED OR MASS IMIGARATION) and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.(WORLD IMMIGRATION)
37 For I will cause Elam (IRAN-BUSHEHR NUKE SITE) to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger,(ISRAELS NUKES POSSIBLY) saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:(IRAN AND ITS NUKE SITES DESTROYED)
ISAIAH 17:1,12-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
12 Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13 The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14 And behold at eveningtide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.
JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23 Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24 Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25 How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26 Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27 And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)
PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)
JEREMIAH 47:1-7
1 The word of the LORD that came to Jeremiah the prophet against the Philistines,(PALESTINIAN/ARABS) before that Pharaoh smote Gaza.
2 Thus saith the LORD; Behold, waters rise up out of the north,(NORTHERN TSUNAMI POSSIBLY) and shall be an overflowing flood, and shall overflow the land, and all that is therein; the city, and them that dwell therein: then the men shall cry, and all the inhabitants of the land shall howl.
3 At the noise of the stamping of the hoofs of his strong horses,(ISRAELS ARMY) at the rushing of his chariots, and at the rumbling of his wheels, the fathers shall not look back to their children for feebleness of hands;(ISRAEL POSSIBLY NUKES GAZA)
4 Because of the day that cometh to spoil all the Philistines,(PALESTINIAN FAKE ARABS) and to cut off from Tyrus and Zidon every helper that remaineth: for the LORD will spoil the Philistines, the remnant of the country of Caphtor.
5 Baldness is come upon Gaza;(NUKED POSSIBLY) Ashkelon is cut off with the remnant of their valley: how long wilt thou cut thyself?
6 O thou sword of the LORD, how long will it be ere thou be quiet? put up thyself into thy scabbard, rest, and be still.
7 How can it be quiet, seeing the LORD hath given it a charge against Ashkelon, and against the sea shore? (MEDITTERANEAN SEA) there hath he appointed it.
DANIEL 11:40-43
40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south ( EGYPT) push at him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) and the king of the north (RUSSIA AND MUSLIM HORDES OF EZEK 38+39) shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.(JORDAN)
42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS-MUSLIMS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them,(BEFORE THE NUKE GOES OFF) and behind them a desolate wilderness;(AFTER THE ATOMIC BOMB GOES OFF) yea, and nothing shall escape them.(EVERYTHING NUKED)
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,ARAB,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate,(SIBERIAN DESERT) with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(FOR COMING AGAINST ISRAEL)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.
JEREMIAH 8:7
7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knoweth her appointed times;(MIGRATION TIME) and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming;(IN MIGRATION SEASON) but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.(WW3 MIGRATING BIRDS EAT ISRAELS ENEMIES FLESH AND BLOOD)
Rocket attacks from Gaza resume; PM threatens ‘more extensive’ response if they continue
New salvos hit the south Wednesday afternoon; school canceled for the day and residents ordered to stay close to ‘secure rooms’
Palestinian terrorists in Gaza
continued their rocket assault on Israel Wednesday afternoon after a
three-hour pause in the attacks, which have seen dozens of missiles
target the south in the past two days.A salvo of eight rockets fell on Hof Ashkelon
just after midday, shattering the quiet that had descended for a few
hours after a series of rocket attacks in the morning. Another two
projectiles were fired at the Hevel Eshkol area. There were no reports
of injury or damage in the latest attacks.School was cancelled in areas close to Gaza on
Wednesday, and residents have been told to remain within 15 seconds of
“secure rooms” in case of further attacks.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on a tour
of the Iron Dome missile defense facility near the coastal town of
Ashkelon, said, “It was not Israel that initiated this escalation, but
if it goes on we are prepared to take more extensive action.”He also promised to fortify every building in
communities 4.5 to 7 kilometers from the Strip, where until now only
educational facilities had been protected.Defense Minister Ehud Barak, speaking to Army
Radio, said, “There are about 1,700 households that need fortification,
but that said, the situation was a lot more difficult in the past
because there was no Iron Dome.”On Wednesday morning, Iron Dome intercepted
seven Grads fired at Ashkelon. In the afternoon the system stopped
another missile fired at the city.France sharply condemned the rocket fire on Israel, urging restraint from both sides.
Since Tuesday afternoon Palestinian terror groups in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip have
fired over 70 rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel.
The incoming missiles were a mix of Gaza-produced Kassam missiles and
military-grade Grad rockets that have a longer range and larger warhead.hree foreign workers were injured in the
Wednesday morning attacks when a rocket hit the chicken coop they were
working in, and several houses were damaged by other missiles. Some of
those hurt in the attacks were flown by helicopter to Soroka Medical
Center in Beersheba.
The IDF has responded to the barrages by
targeting terror cells and Hamas installations in the Gaza Strip. Three
Palestinians were killed in overnight airstrikes.IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz called
a meeting Tuesday to assess the situation and toured some of the sites
that were hit in attacks.
Barak said he could not rule out a ground invasion if fire continued.
“If we need a ground operation there will be a ground operation. We
will do whatever necessary to stop this wave” of violence, he told Army
Radio on Wednesday.“It’s important for the government to think
before it decides. This move will bring escalation and not peace — there
is no way to reconcile with the terror from Gaza. We are considering
everything we need and examining everything. If there will be no choice
and the fire continues, they will be struck hard, nothing is
impossible,” he said.Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said Israel
was facing “a serious escalation” in the south. Speaking before a
meeting with visiting EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, he said
Israel would “not tolerate” the ongoing rocket fire for much longer.
Peres charges that Palestinians use aid money to fire rockets
President says it is ‘unthinkable’ for the ruler of Qatar to donate millions of dollars that are then used to attack Israel
President Shimon Peres on Wednesday accused Palestinians of using aid donations to fund their rocket campaign against Israel.As dozens of rockets landed on southern
Israeli towns, causing injuries and damage on Wednesday morning, Peres
said that Palestinian terrorists cannot expect to attack and then be
embraced.
“They need to decide what they want,” Peres said. “We won’t have a situation in which they shoot and we remain passive.”Peres’s statement came a day after the
emir of Qatar Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani visited the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip
and pledged $400 million in aid to the coastal enclave. Israel and
Egypt are enforcing a blockade on Gaza in an effort to reduce the
military capabilities of Hamas, which Israel and several Western
countries, including the United States, consider a terrorist
organization.
“We would be happy if Gaza is built up and
produces jobs. But it is unthinkable that the emir of Qatar can come and
give millions of dollars and they shoot rockets,” Peres said.Within hours of the emir’s visit on Tuesday,
a barrage of rocket fire began, continuing on Wednesday. The IDF responded by targeting terrorist cells as they attempted to launch missiles.Peres made the statements during a condolence visit to the family of Majdi Halabi, a
soldier whose remains were recently found seven years after he went missing in 2005. The circumstances surrounding Halabi’s death are still being investigated.
Syria undecided on ceasefire proposal, rebels divided
By Oliver Holmes and Shaimaa Fayed | Reuters – 18 mins ago OCT 24,12
BEIRUT/CAIRO (Reuters) -
Syria said on Wednesday its military command was still studying a proposal for a holiday
ceasefire with rebels - contradicting international mediator
Lakhdar Brahimi's announcement that
Damascus had agreed to a
truce.The statement threw Brahimi's efforts to arrange a
pause in the bloodshed in Syria into even more confusion, as divided
rebel groups fighting to topple President Bashar al-Assad gave mixed
messages.The prominent Farooq Brigade, which operates out of the
battered city of Homs, said it would cease fire. The Islamist militant
Al Nusra Front rejected the truce, saying it is not a group "who accepts
to play such dirty games."A previous ceasefire arrangement in April collapsed
within days, with both sides accusing the other of breaking it.Brahimi, the joint U.N.-Arab League special envoy, had
crisscrossed the Middle East to push the warring factions and their
international backers to agree to a truce during the upcoming Muslim
holiday of Eid al-Adha - a mission that included talks with Assad in
Damascus at the weekend."After the visit I made to Damascus, there is agreement
from the Syrian government for a ceasefire during the Eid," Brahimi
told a news conference at the Arab League in Cairo.
Within an hour,
Syria's Foreign Ministry said the proposal was still being studied by
the military commanders. "The final position on this issue will be
announced tomorrow," a ministry statement said. Brahimi later told the United Nations Security Council that Assad himself accepted the truce.The holiday starts on Thursday and lasts three or four
days. Brahimi did not specify the precise time period for a truce.Nor did the initiative include plans for international
observers, and rebel sources had earlier told Reuters there was little
point if it could not be monitored or enforced.Assad's forces and rebels are now locked in a battle with huge potential ramifications in the northwest.Syrian warplanes carried out bombing raids on Wednesday
on the strategic northern town of Maarat al-Numan and nearby villages
while rebels surrounded an army base to its east, an activist monitor
said.Five people from
one family, including a child and a woman, were killed in the air
strikes, according to Rami Abdelrahman, head of the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Maarat al-Numan has fallen to the rebels, effectively
cutting the main north-south highway, a strategic route for Assad to
move troops from the capital Damascus to Aleppo, Syria's largest city
where the insurgents have taken a foothold.But without control of the nearby Wadi al-Daif military
base, their grip over the road is tenuous and the rebels say the
ferocity of counter-attacks by government forces shows how important
holding the base is to Assad's military strategy.
CHILDREN KNIFED
More than 32,000 people have been killed in the
conflict, which began with peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations in
March 2011 and then mushroomed into civil war as repression increased.On Wednesday, opposition activists and Syrian state
media traded blame for the killing of at least 25 people, including
women and children, in the town of Douma near Damascus."People now are scared and very angry. Some of the
martyrs were killed with knives, others were shot," Mahmoud Doumany, an
activist living in Douma, told Reuters.Syrian state television said 25 people had been killed by "terrorist members of the so-called 'Liwa al-Islam.'"Opposition video showed the bodies of women and children, one of whom had a hole in his head.
"God is great," said a man off screen, his voice
trembling as he walked around the house, filming bodies on several
floors of a residential building.
REFUGEES FLEE BOMBARDMENTS
Hundreds of Syrian refugees have poured into a
makeshift refugee camp at Atimah overlooking the Turkish border, fleeing
a week of what they said were the most intense army bombardments since
the uprising began.
"Some of the bombs were so big they sucked in the air
and everything crashes down, even four-storey buildings. We used to have
one or two rockets a day, now for the past 10 days it has become
constant, we run from one shelter to another. They drop a few bombs and
it's like a massacre," one refugee, a 20-year-old named Nabil, told
Reuters at the camp.The army relies on air power and heavy artillery to push back the rebels.Human Rights Watch
said the Syrian air force had increased its use of cluster bombs across
the country in the past two weeks. The New York-based organization
identified, through activist video footage of unexploded bomblets, three
types of cluster bombs which had fallen on and around Maarat al-Numan.Cluster bombs
explode in the air, scattering dozens of smaller bomblets over an area
the size of a sports field. Most nations have banned their use under a
convention that became international law in 2010, but which Syria has
not signed.In contrast to the
Libya crisis last year, the West has shown little appetite to arm the
Syrian rebels, worried that weapons would fall into the hands of Islamic
militants.Russia, which has
backed Assad through the conflict, sold his government $1 billion worth
of weapons last year and has made clear it would oppose an arms embargo
in the U.N. Security Council.(Additional
reporting by Marwan Makdesi in Damascus, Erika Solomon in Atiha, Yasmine
Saleh and Tom Perry in Cairo, Steve Gutterman in Moscow, Ahmed Tolba in
Cairo; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
SEX SINS
1 CORINTHIANS 6:9,14-18
9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
14 And God hath both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power.
15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.
16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.
17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.
18 Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.
GALATIONS 5:19-21
19 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20 Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21 Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
SODOMY & ANIMAL SEX BRINGS JUDGEMENT ON THAT NATION
LEVITICUS 18:22-30
22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.
23 Neither shalt thou lie with any beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast to lie down thereto: it is confusion.
24 Defile not ye yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you:
25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants.
Men and Women Can't be 'Just Friends'
By Adrian F. Ward | Scientific American – Tue, Oct 23, 2012
Can heterosexual
men and women ever be “just friends”? Few other questions have provoked debates as intense, family dinners as awkward,
literature as lurid, or
movies as memorable.
Still, the question remains unanswered. Daily experience suggests that
non-romantic friendships between males and females are not only
possible, but common—men and women live, work, and play side-by-side,
and generally seem to be able to avoid spontaneously sleeping together.
However, the possibility remains that this apparently platonic
coexistence is merely a façade, an elaborate dance covering up countless
sexual impulses bubbling just beneath the surface.
New research suggests that there
may be some truth to this possibility—that we may think we’re capable of
being “just friends” with members of the
opposite sex,
but the opportunity (or perceived opportunity) for “romance” is often
lurking just around the corner, waiting to pounce at the most
inopportune moment.
In order to investigate the viability of truly platonic opposite-sex
friendships—a topic that has been explored more on the silver screen
than in the science lab—researchers brought 88 pairs of undergraduate
opposite-sex friends into…a science lab. Privacy was paramount—for
example, imagine the fallout if two friends learned that one—and only
one—had unspoken romantic feelings for the other throughout their
relationship. In order to ensure honest responses, the researchers not
only followed standard protocols regarding anonymity and
confidentiality, but also required both friends to agree—verbally, and
in front of each other—to refrain from discussing the study, even after
they had left the testing facility. These friendship pairs were then
separated, and each member of each pair was asked a series of questions related to his or her romantic feelings (or lack thereof) toward the friend with whom they were taking the study.
The results suggest large gender differences in how men and women
experience opposite-sex friendships. Men were much more attracted to
their female friends than vice versa. Men were also more likely than
women to think that their opposite-sex friends were attracted to them—a
clearly misguided belief. In fact, men’s estimates of how attractive
they were to their female friends had virtually nothing to do with how
these women actually felt, and almost everything to do with how the men
themselves felt—basically, males assumed that any romantic attraction
they experienced was mutual, and were blind to the actual level of
romantic interest felt by their female friends. Women, too, were blind
to the mindset of their opposite-sex friends; because females generally
were not attracted to their male friends, they assumed that this lack of
attraction was mutual. As a result, men consistently overestimated the level of attraction felt by their female friends and women consistently underestimated the level of attraction felt by their male friends.
Men were also more willing to act on this mistakenly perceived mutual
attraction. Both men and women were equally attracted to romantically
involved opposite-sex friends and those who were single;
“hot” friends were hot and “not” friends were not, regardless of their
relationship
status. However, men and women differed in the extent to which they
saw attached friends as potential romantic partners. Although men were
equally as likely to desire “romantic dates” with “taken” friends as
with single ones, women were sensitive to their male friends’
relationship status and uninterested in pursuing those who were already
involved with someone else.
These results suggest that men, relative to women, have a particularly
hard time being “just friends.” What makes these results particularly
interesting is that they were found within
particular
friendships (remember, each participant was only asked about the
specific, platonic, friend with whom they entered the lab). This is not
just a bit of confirmation for stereotypes about sex-hungry males and
naïve females; it is direct proof that two people can experience the
exact same relationship in radically different ways. Men seem to see
myriad opportunities for romance in their supposedly platonic
opposite-sex friendships. The women in these friendships, however, seem
to have a completely different orientation—one that is actually
platonic.
To the outside observer, it seems clear that these vastly different
views about the potential for romance in opposite-sex friendships could
cause serious complications—and people within opposite-sex relationships
agree. In a follow-up study, 249 adults (many of whom were married)
were asked to list the positive and negative aspects of being friends
with a specific member of the opposite sex. Variables related to
romantic attraction (e.g., “our relationship could lead to romantic
feelings”) were five times more likely to be listed as negative aspects
of the friendship than as positive ones. However, the differences
between men and women appeared here as well. Males were significantly
more likely than females to list romantic attraction as a benefit of
opposite-sex friendships, and this discrepancy increased as men
aged—males on the younger end of the spectrum were four times more
likely than females to report romantic attraction as a benefit of
opposite-sex friendships, whereas those on the older end of the spectrum
were ten times more likely to do the same.
Taken together, these studies suggest that men and women have vastly
different views of what it means to be “just friends”—and that these
differing views have the potential to lead to trouble. Although women
seem to be genuine in their belief that opposite-sex friendships are
platonic, men seem unable to turn off their desire for something more.
And even though both genders agree overall that attraction between
platonic friends is more negative than positive, males are less likely
than females to hold this view.
So, can men and women be “just friends?” If we all thought like women,
almost certainly. But if we all thought like men, we’d probably be
facing a serious overpopulation crisis.
Are you a scientist who
specializes in neuroscience, cognitive science, or psychology? And have
you read a recent peer-reviewed paper that you would like to write
about? Please send suggestions to Mind Matters editor Gareth Cook, a
Pulitzer prize-winning journalist at the Boston Globe. He can be reached
at garethideas AT gmail.com or Twitter @garethideas.
